5. Ghostface Killah – The Big Doe Rehab
Ghostface has no doubt been the most consistent solo artist to come out of the Wu and he continues his stellar performance on this project. With incredible delivery and sharp concept songs, you can play this from start to finish without pressing the skip button. On “Yolanda’s House”, Ghost, Meth and Rae pretty much experience everything that can go wrong when you go to a girl’s crib. Even though Def Jam won’t tell the world this album exists we’ll try to let people know to cop this joint.
4. Little Brother – Getback
Who says the South is all about the trap and catchy dance steps? Phonte and Big Pooh are two dudes from North Carolina who no one has heard of but can probably rap circles around the top 10 on the billboard charts. Combining humor, wit and originality (“Good Clothes” is about the feeling that you used to get when you put on your best outfit), Little Brother proves that Hip-Hop can still be fun and reminds us why we fell in love with it in the first place.
3. Lupe Fiasco – Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool
After receiving lackluster sales on his debut, what did Lupe do? He made an even deeper, more complex album that challenges the listener from start to finish. Songs like “Hip-Hop Saved My Life” and “Intruder Alert” are so vivid in detail that you can literally feel the experiences of the subjects in the verses. Others like “Gotta Eat” and “Dumb It Down” are songs that you can know all the words by heart and still have no idea what he’s talking about. (Note: This album was #7 after the first listen. However upon the second time, I realized just how much went over my head and it kept getting better and better each time.) This is an album that cannot be appreciated in the moment and will still feel new years later as you will still pick up on new lines and concepts.
2. Kanye West – Graduation
Every two years Ye goes back into the studio and delivers a new dose of that crack music. After surviving the dreaded “sophomore slump”, everyone was wondering if he can do it again. As expected, the production was top notch but where this album really separates itself was the continued improvement of Kanye’s rhymes. Whether its clever wordplay, switching cadences and flows or storytelling, there’s no doubt that you have to start considering Kanye as one of the best rappers in the game. His performance on songs like “The Glory” and “Homecoming” is as good as any rapper’s this year. To add an extra cherry to the mix, on top of delivering a great album, Kanye received another victory as he beat 50 Cent in the highly publicized 1st week sales battle. In most years, Graduation would have earned the top spot and 2007 would have been no different if it wasn’t for…
1. Jay-Z – American Gangster
Kanye’s “Big Brother”. Taking a lot of criticism for last year’s comeback album, Jay-Z went back into the studio and cranked out a classic. Although it’s inspired by the film of the same title, you would be mistaken if you assume this album is just about selling drugs. This album is no more about selling drugs than Romeo & Juliet is about suicide. Hov breaks down the psychology of the album’s “main character” from his initial motivations for entering the drug game to his inevitable downfall. It is very difficult to listen to this album and declare that all drug dealers are just senseless thugs who ruin the community; they are fathers, husbands and sons who are often conflicted and possibly regret some of the decisions that they make. On “Sweet” our character deals with the notion that his nephew is following in his infamous footsteps. “I Know” breaks down the destructive love affair between a user and her drug that dealer is partly responsible for creating. The production on this album is incredible as Diddy brought the Hitmen back together and delivered the foundation that gave this album its 1970’s feel. Musically, American Gangster is seen as the hybrid between Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint, Jay-Z added great depth and maturity to his already incredible lyrical skill and put together an album that is truly timeless.
"Let the Debate Begin"
4 comments:
It's a no brainer that Jay and Ye were gonna make it in the top 5, with Jay coming in first. I can't really argue with that....however, I woulda bumped that Ghostface up a few nothches, especially cuz my man slid in at the last minute and blew 07 out the water with what is officially my favorite Ghostface album. There isn't ONE single song on this joint that I don't like, and I don't think I've ever said that about any album in any genre. Ghost killed it and Rae and Meth got to redeem themselves; ya'll know exectly what I'm talkin bout.
Like I said, this list was really difficult to make. (which is a good thing) Ghost really did outdo himself this time but so did Little Brother and Lupe Fiasco. But if we had PTM last year you would have seen me list Meth's last album 4:21... The Day After. That was a DOPE album! Unfortunately, the good folks at Def Jam aren't too good at promotion their artists anymore.
The only two spots that were easy were the top 2, even the bottom 3 were tough because guys like Sean Price and Redman did make solid albums
I find that very interesting that the top two were easy. Was it easy to decide which was first and which was second between the two of them? And that Sean Price....I tried to get into it but he talked so much about absolutely nothing I couldn't even acknowledge his skills through the jibberish. And it was disappointing cuz Heltah Skeltah is def one of my favorites of all BCC.
I'm late on this one but...the top two were correctly awarded for a lot of little reasons. Not many artists create entire conceptual albums; one or two of the tracks always fall off. Fewer succeed at a trilogy - shouts to West. He’s kept the “theme” going without it being corny. As far as Jay is concerned, American Gangster shows how an artist can for years and years talk about the same subjects, but now from the perspective of a more enlightened person. The tracks were beautiful. I love the “f*ck you, pay me” attitude of Ignorant Sh*t.
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